Gold-separator.



No. 699,885. 4Patented May I3, |902.

n.1 @LESTER .soLnsEwmAmnC [Application filed May 11, 1901.)

(un model.)

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MM -BT/fw JTTORJYEY- UNiinD STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT O. LESTER, OF MAPLETON, NORTH DAKOTA.

GOLD-SEPARATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 699,885, dated May 13, 1902.

Application led May 1I, 1901.

To @ZZ whom zt may concern.-

Be it known that LRoBERT C. LEsTER,a citizen of the United States, residing at Mapleton, in the county of Cass and State of North Dakota, have Linvented certain new and useful Improvements in Gold-Separators; and I dol declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description ofthe invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part f this speciiication.

My invention relates to improvements in machinery for separating gold-dust and grains of gold from sand, clay, gravel, and earth in general.

In the accompanying drawings, Figurel is a partly-sectional side elevation of my machine or gold-separator, and Fig. 2 is a top View of the sluice-box and its legs with all the operating parts removed.

Referring to the drawings by referencenumerals, 3 designates the four legs supporting the machine. They have their upper ends pivotally bolted at 4, so that they may be secured by the bolts in any desired position, more or less inclined or folded up near the sides of the machine, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2, during transportation. Two of the legs are short and support the spout 5,

while the other two legs are longer and support the highest end of the sluice-box 6, which rests slidingly with its lower end upon the spout 5, which is open at the upper side. In an opening in the bottom of the inclined sluicebox is provided the grate 7, having the central opening S for the shaft 9 to pass through. Said grate is separated in halves at the points 10 10, so that it may be more easily removed when the shaft is to be taken out or inserted.

The downwardly-curved main pipe 12 is secured with its longestend under the sluicebox directly underneath the grate 7 and with its short arm to the bottom of the spoutpiece 5, directly under the opening 11, and in said long arm of the pipe is j ournaled the rotary shaft 9, having the twisted or inclined wings 14 along its body. Said shaft is preferably journaled in the lug 15 and in the bifur- Serial No. 59,867. (No model.)

cated bracket 10, where it is provided with a long keyway 17, sliding on a key (not shown) secured in the bevel-gear 18, which revolves in the bifurcation of the bracket, so as not to slide with the' shaft. This wheel or gear is driven by another gear-wheel 19, also retained in the bifurcation of the bracket, but secured on the shaft 20, seas not to slide on it. The shaft is also journaled in the said bracket 16 with one end. The other end is journaled in the high bracket or standard 21, projecting upward from the spout-piece 5, is provided with ahand-crank 22 and a long keyway 23, adapted to slide on keys (not shown) secured in the drive-pulley 24, and the mitergear 25, which latter meshes with the mitergear 2G, secured on the upright shaft 27, on the lower end of which is adj ustably secured by the set-screw 2S the stirrer 29, revolving in the opening 11, where it may be adjusted up and down on its shaft.

is an arm to keep the pulley 24 from sliding with the shaft.

The pipe 12 has its longestarm provided with a sliding joint 3l, so that'its length may be altered by sliding of the joint and adjustment of the thumb-screw 32. When such sliding takes place, the shaft 9 slides in the gearwheel 18 and the shaft 2O in the gear-wheel 25 and pulley 24, while the sluice-box 6 slides on thetop of the spout-piece 5.

In the lower side of the bend of the pipe 12 is provided a valve-shell 33 and valve-plug 34, with the handle 35, while in the upper side of the bend is an aperture 36, above which is a vacuum-chamber 37, provided with a petcock 38 in its top.

In the operation of the machine the pipe 12 is first filled with mercury about up to the line ctain Fig. 1. The air is then sucked out from the vacuum-chamber in any suitable manner through the petcock38, which is thereupon closed, and the valve-plug. 34 is turned downward, as shown, so that the mercury rendered heavy by capturing (the gold may lodge in the valve-shell and be removed therefrom while the machine is running by turning quickly the plug upward, as indicated in dotted lines. The plug may also be turned to one side in the shell and will then permit the whole contents of the pipe Ice to pour out through the opposite side or space in the shell, which is sometimes desirable for cleaning and other purposes. A suitable stream of water is allowed to flow into the upper end of the sluice-box, where is also shoveled in the gold-holding sand or earth to be washed, so that the same is carried down through the grate 7 with the water, except rocks too large to pass through the grate. Those move down along the inclined bottom of the sluice-box and drop into the spout 5, where they are expelled with the washed sand, driven through the pipe, and up through the opening 11 by the wings 14 of the shaft 9, which is rotated by the gears and shafts shown, either by a belt put on the pulley 24 or by the hand-crank 22, while the stirrer 29, being also geared to the same operating mechanism, rotates simultaneously with the shaft 9 and with its depending fingers agitates the sand, so as to separate from it the gold and mercury possibly carried that far with the current and allow them to fall back to the-valve 33.

During the operation just described the mercury is forced with the sand and water as high up as to the line b b in the short arm of the pipe 12; but as this lowers it in the long arm of the pipe the mercury in the vacuumchamber 37 is more or less drawn into the pipe, while water, beinglighter, floats up into the chamber, and when the machine stops the mercury enters again the chamber, expelling the water either downward or through the petcock, as when first starting.

The' more or less slanting of the long legs of the machine will to some extent vary the head of water in the long arm of the pipe, and thus increase or decrease the current at the curve of the pipe, as may be desired, for different kinds of earth or sand or coarseness of gold-dust operated on; but as such changing upward of the long pipe-arm causes a reduction of the height of the short pipe-arm an increased current could not in that manner be provided without danger of driving fine gold-dust out with the sand. Hence to avoid the latter danger I provide the long pipe-arm with the sliding joint 31, by which the long arm may be extended upward without changing the position of the short arm or the curve of the pipe.

Having thus described myinvention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A gold-separator having in combination a pipe curved downward near its middle, or between its ends forming a short and a long inclined arm, a vacuum-chamber at the upper side of the curve, opening into the pipe and having a petcoc-k at its top, said chamber and curve of the pipe, being adapted to contain mercury; an inclined stirrer-shaft in the 4long arm of the pipe for driving and stirring the water-mixed gold-holding sand through the pipe, a stirrer at the outlet end of the short arm of the pipe for separating the mercury and gold from the sand or gravel before it leaves the machine, means for connecting and driving or operating said stirrers, and means for providing a current of water to pass through the pipe.

2. In a gold-separator and mounted in suitable framework the combination with a V- shaped pipe having a short outlet-arm and a long inclined inlet-arm of an inclined stirrershaft journaled to revolve axially in the long arm of the pipe, a vertical stirrer-shaft having a vertically-adjustable stirrer revolving in the mouth or outlet opening of the short pipe-arm, the horizontal operating-shaft 20, having the crank 22 and the pulley 24E, the bevel-gears 18, 19 and 25 and 26 connecting the operating-shaft with both of the stirrershafts; said operating-shaft also having the long keyway 23, the pulley 24, and gear 25 having keys slidable in said keyway; a key secured in the gear 18 and the long keyway 11 in shaft 9; the said long pipe-arm having the slidable joint 31 with the set-screw 32; the slui-ce-box 5 6, made in two overlapping sections, so as tobe extensible when the joint 3l and the shafts 2O are extended.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ROBERT C. LESTER.

Witnesses:

O. ToRGERsoN, i M. DERRIG.

'isY 

